Fancy Boys Club

You Can Receive 81,282,632 Votes And Still Have Nobody Like You

February 22, 2022by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment

At the time I’m writing this, President Joe Biden has an approval rating, according to the FiveThirtyEight site, of 41.8%, and that is not a good number. It’s not the worst his approval ratings have been at, but I don’t see it taking any monumental changes anytime soon. It appears that Biden will have the same fate of former President Trump, whose approval rating always seemed to stay between 40-43%.

Liberals are disappointed with him because he’s unable to do any of the things they want him to do because of the razor-thin Senate majority. Conservatives hate him because their hearts are mostly empty, like the Grinch in the beginning and middle of the book. The media doesn’t like him because they cannot fill their day like they did with Trump. This is just speculation, but I bet even the White House chefs don’t like him, because he seems like the kind of motherfucker whose idea of a perfect meal is just plain white rice and a glass of tap water.

We all don’t like the dude. But we also knew that when we elected him.

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Music/Movies, Oscars

FBC 2022 OSCAR COVERAGE, PART III: Where Does West Side Story Rank In The Spielberg Pantheon?

February 21, 2022February 20, 2022by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment

With his nomination for West Side Story, Steven Spielberg joined Billy Wilder at third place for the most Best Director nominations of all time with eight. He’s four behind the great William Wyler, but it’s who is just one ahead of him that I find more interesting: Martin Scorsese.

I don’t think Spielberg has much of a chance to win this year, which means he will have lost that category six times. Now, to put that in perspective, that is a very impressive number especially when you consider that he has more LOSSES than some of the greats like Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, Robert Altman, Francis Ford Coppola, Clint Eastwood, etc.) have total nominations.

Best Director nominee Steven Spielberg arrives on the red carpet for the 85th Annual Academy Awards on February 24, 2013 in Hollywood, California. AFP PHOTO/FREDERIC J. BROWN (Photo credit should read FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images)

Here’s what I find interesting about Scorsese having more nominations: while he is an amazing and influential filmmaker, Steven Spielberg is the greatest director of my lifetime. And to be in his sixth decade of moviemaking with only two Oscars and eight nominations is kind of an insult to the man. And I know it seems crazy to be so revered and decorated AND underrated at the same time, but Spielberg has been redefining the concept of success in the art of film his entire career.

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NFL, Sports, television

California Knows How To Party: Dr. Dre, Sexual Anarchy, and Where This Super Bowl Halftime Show Ranks

February 14, 2022February 14, 2022by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment

First off, let’s get the disappointments out of the way: there was no hologram Tupac on Sunday night.

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Advice, NFL, Sports

An Agnostic Football Fan Guide to the Super Bowl

February 9, 2022February 8, 2022by Brandon AndreasenLeave a Comment

So it’s that time of the year. The biggest sporting event of the season is happening and your favorite team is long since eliminated from contention. The elimination could be heartbreaking (49ers/Chiefs) or predetermined by fate (Jaguars/Lions). Thirty fan bases are left out in the rain on February 13th. And the remaining fanbases?

Bengals fans have been so embarrassed by their team over the past three decades that they didn’t really claim their own existence until a month and a half ago.

The Rams….well, they don’t have fans. I can speak to this because I was in St. Louis over the weekend, when they beat the 49ers to go to the Super Bowl. The team, who existed in the STL until just a couple years ago, do not have many fans (more on this later). The team now exists in Los Angeles, which doesn’t give a damn about them.

Over 70 million people watch the Super Bowl each year. The vast majority of those people are not fans of the Bengals or Rams. Welcome to the Agnostic Football Fan Guide to Super Bowl LVI.

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Music/Movies, Oscars

FBC 2022 OSCAR COVERAGE- PART II: NOMINATION RECAP (or, The Power Of The Power Of The Dog)

February 8, 2022February 8, 2022by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment

When the dust settled and I saw that I was 39-for-50 on my Oscar nomination predictions, some things were very easy to understand. I mean, I really didn’t think the Academy was going to nominate Nicolas Cage for his role in Pig, even though that was the best performance of the entire year. And it made sense that there were slight underperformances from films like West Side Story and Belfast, even though they both each had seven nominations and each film was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director.

But two things stood out in a huge way: the fact that the film I consider the frontrunner in many categories dominated the nominations even more than I thought possible, and that a little film from Japan made a whole lot more noise than I thought it possibly could have.

In short, I love the Oscars. Let’s dive into the nominations.

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Sports

The NHL Report at the All-Star Break

February 7, 2022February 6, 2022by copperwriteLeave a Comment

The NHL in the first ‘half’ (we are beyond the halfway point but the All-Star Break is a reasonable spot to be considered halfway), we saw the league do some good things. One, they pulled their players from participating in the Olympics. Frankly, just preventing the players from being exhausted for the stretch run it would have made sense. Protecting them from possibly being more exposed than they already are to COVID is another. Two, COVID protocols have seemed to work. There have been times when teams have had to take time off because their ranks have been decimated by the virus, but that lay-off doesn’t really seem to affect good teams. And bad teams are, by definition, bad so who fucking cares.

Regarding good teams, let’s slip on some skates and glide around with my favorite team, the Colorado Avalanche. They played Trashville on December 16th and got their ass handed to them, losing 5-2. Due to COVID, they didn’t play again until January 2nd. Basically, they got a public-school Christmas Break. A long layoff ought to make a team pretty rusty, right? Umm, large no on that one. They won their return game, roasting the Ducks 4-2, then proceeded to go 14-1 for January, vaulting themselves into first place in the Western Conference. They’re 8 points above the Trashville Sabre Cats (Yes I know they are the Nashville Predators, but look at their dumb-ass logo) with two games in hand.

Nazem Kadri of the Avalanche is having a hell of a season. Here’s hoping he keeps his head on straight and doesn’t do anything stupid to get suspended like her did for the playoffs last year. Photo via The Hockey News shot by Jeff Curry – USA Today Sports

What does two games in hand mean? I’ll get to that. Tighten the laces on your skates and let’s continue.

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Comedy, politics, Pop Culture, Uncategorized

Are You (Joe Rogan) Experienced?

February 6, 2022by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment

This is going to be another one of those stories where we talk about something that many comedians have been discussing on social media. Maybe you’re a comedian and this interests you. Maybe you’re not a comedian but keep your finger on the pulse of comedy news. Maybe you’re an alpaca and your farmer is reading this to you.

Like the other stories I’ve written in this vein about people like Shane Gillis and Dave Chappelle, this is a story where I take a look at speech and consequences and the concept of a “cancel culture”, though the fact that I’ve put quotes around that term should tell you where I stand on it. There’s a lot of stuff you could also cover, from toxic fandom to how so many people are using a climate of fear for their own personal gain.

So, strap in, kids. Let’s talk about Joe Rogan.

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Sports

90 Seconds of Fame: the Legacy of Ski Ballet

February 2, 2022February 1, 2022by Michael GraceLeave a Comment

The Beijing Winter Olympics are upon us, and with that comes another political elephant in the room and of course the existential dread of that thing we’ve all been dealing with. Still, the Olympics are a time to honor what is great in humanity, displaying the best of our youth. Over the next two weeks, figure skaters will dazzle us, curlers will inspire us, and those skeleton dudes will have us feeling anxious. Years ago, in the days of Cool Runnings, there was a sport just on the fringe of Olympic competition called Ski Ballet. It was here and gone before it could grab the hearts and minds of the world, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t special. I assure you, whatever you’re picturing in your head, you’re probably correct.

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Comedy, NFL, Sports

4 Ways In Which Tom Brady Is Inferior To Air Bud

February 1, 2022February 1, 2022by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment

The sports world was saddened today as Tom Brady announced his retirement, assumably so he can continue what appears to be his true passion of making incredibly cheesy commercials for rental car companies. There is no way to understate Brady’s dominance of the NFL, and you could make the argument that he is not only the best quarterback in the history of the league, but also the best player.

However, I am not interested in comparing him to all QBs or every person to ever play in the NFL. I’m only curious in how Brady stacks up to one man.

And, by man, I mean dog.

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Music/Movies, Oscars

FBC 2022 Oscar Coverage- Part I: Predicting The Nominees

January 31, 2022by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment

When the last football game was played on Sunday and we knew who would be competing in the Super Bowl, a wonderful thought occurred to me and I was instantly overjoyed: IT’S OSCAR SEASON, BABY! I no longer have to care about football, because movies are back and we are in the full swing of awards season!

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